Queen of Lapa

An intimate, captivating and daring portrait of Luana Muniz, one of history’s most influential transsexual activists.

For about 20 years, the renowned artist, activist and sex worker Luana Muniz has run a house in the middle of Lapa in central Rio de Janeiro, where she takes care of other prostituted transsexual women who arrive to the city to find labor as sex workers. There, Luana teaches the girls what is right or wrong, and how they protect themselves on the streets. With a respectful and humble perspective, we follow their daily lives while the film humanizes issues surrounding transsexual sex workers in Rio. Queen of Lapa is a powerful homage to the trans-community where people constantly have to fight for their lives – in a city that is currently run by a man who has declared war on them.

• Clarice Goulart